… top South African corporates:
Mvelaphanda, Discovery Health and CC
South Africa use emotional intelligence
as tools for success, AstroTech teaches
it

If we are to beat
low wage, high impact economies at their
game, the old mantra of 'work faster'
becomes meaningless. China and India
have people power, we need to use brain
power.Or as, Larry Page, one of the
founders of emotionally intelligent
corporation, Google, said in the book of
the same name:

"There is a
phrase I learned in college called
'having a healthy disregard for the
impossible.' This is a really good
phrase. You should try to do things
that most people would not."

Within less than a
decade of helping found Google and
barely past his 30th birthday he was
personally worth $10bn. At Google they
have five star chefs churning out
organic, healthy meals for staff and 20
percent of your paid work time has to be
spent, each week, on doing a project
that has nothing to do with your job -
it can be anything from skydiving to art
lessons.
More companies are closely looking at
what first seemed to be 1990s
psycho-babble: emotional intelligence.

Emotional
intelligence comes from work on brain
potential. If one sees the brain as an
onion, it has a small inner core, the
R-complex, surrounded by a larger limbic
system, and an outer skin called the
neocortex. The R-complex regulates
reflex survival behaviour: flight or
fight, social rituals (it's the part
that gives you sweaty palms) and body
language (tightly crossed arms during
conflict). The limbic system
generates and controls emotions and
motivation. If you pay attention to the
limbic and R-complex elements of a
situation your ability to make good
decisions will be enhanced, especially
if the mediating neocortex expresses its
gentle pressure. If you ignore them,
you're more likely to shout back at the
boss and storm out. Major training
organizations such as AstroTech now
have it on their training schedule,
because CEO Liza van Wyk says,

"more companies
have a holistic approach to
management. Development of the
individual is as important as
developing the brand, and teamwork
in today's high stress environments
is critical."

Mvelaphanda,
Discovery Health and game resort
emperors, CC South Africa, have
emotional intelligence as core operating
beliefs.
Samantha Burns, head: employer brand
management at Discovery said most
managers tend to be

"results
oriented, but if there is not enough
balance to the human element they
get poorer results. Emotional
intelligence from a manager improves
focus and the results of a team and
liberates the potential of people to
get better results. Some managers
feel uncomfortable in the beginning,
because instead of just making
demands they have to sit and discuss
with staff. Once they realise the
power of those conversations and
too, the way their body language can
shut people up and stop people
hearing, and change that, they get
much better results."

Emotional
intelligence is the preserve of the
super confident manager.
A natural at EQ is Tokyo Sexwale head of
Mvelaphanda, a multi billionaire, his
operations include South Africa's
biggest producers of gold, second
biggest exporters from South Africa of
diamonds, world's fourth biggest
platinum producers, and yet every Friday
he sits down to lunch with his staff.

"EQ," he makes
clear, "has nothing to do with IQ."
He says EQ often fails when bosses,
"demand outcomes on those who are
wrongly deployed, this person may be
a navigator, not a pilot.

"Emotional
intelligence means I find time. Time
to sit among my people and enjoy
their company. I take time to
listen."

It is in listening
that an effective manager best discovers
the passions of his or her team members
and is better able to direct and
influence them. Bev Riemer, an EQ
consultant and trainer for AstroTech
has been teaching emotional intelligence
for five years. She says emotional
intelligence is tapping into the
primeval power of our instinct.

Instinct is the thing
that tells you not to cross the road.
But, you look and the road is empty,
your rational mind thinks, 'I'm being
silly', you step off the pavement and
get knocked over by a bus. The primary
issues Riemer focuses on are emotional
honesty, literacy, debt, emotional
fitness. For example, with emotional
fitness, your instinct might be to give
your boss a piece of your mind,

"but that may get
you no further in business.
Emotional intelligence guides you to
the right approach. Many people
don't like emotional honesty because
it makes them feel uncomfortable, it
may have something to do with the
way in which you speak to a person,
or the way in which the person
receiving that information may pick
it up."

Your negative
filters; your perceptions that you will
be discriminated against because you are
black, a woman, Jewish, Muslim,
disabled, can lead to your own fears
realizing themselves, not because of the
discrimination of others, but because of
your own negative preprogramming.

Because of this, emotional debt is an
important part of emotional
intelligence, Riemer says it is

"recognising your
own weaknesses, where is my
potential, how do I overcome
obstacles?" Riemer says that in
those companies that implement EQ,
"the levels of trust and energy are
incredible. Heirarchy is not
important, ability is." She says the
greater sense of personal
acknowledgement a person has in an
organization, the harder they will
work for it. "